Donald TrumpAs president, Trump will have the authority to immediately cut off a form of financial assistance provided to the lowest-income enrollees in health plans sold on the Obamacare health insurance exchanges. House sued President 's administration, alleging it is illegally providing these subsidies without congressional approval. A with the GOP earlier this year in a decision the Obama administration appealed. ," which are subsidies the federal government pays health insurance companies to shrink, , outof-pocket costs like deductibles and copayments for health insurance exchange enrollees at the lowest end of the income scale. These are separate from the tax credits low- and middle-income households can receive to reduce their monthly premium costs. This maneuver, which already are , would enable the new Republican president to strike a major blow against the Affordable Care Act, a law Republicans have since Obama signed it in 2010. as soon as January"The law will enable a President Trump either to cut the cost-sharing payments off or to continue them if he'd like to. He's got the discretion to keep them in place or to terminate them," said Nicholas Bagley, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who has about the case, known as House vs. Burwell. a rangeDuring this year's health insurance sign-up period, about 57 percent of enrollees, or approximately, received this assistance. For the poorest beneficiaries those with incomes under $17,820 this means having no deductible instead of having to before benefits kick in. Paul RyanBut health insurance companies are legally allowed to stop providing coverage through the exchanges if the cost-sharing payments end, which would result in their customers losing their insurance plans. "I think they run for the exits," Levitt said. Whatever congressional Republicans and the Trump administration may devise as a health reform platform to succeed Obamacare if they would rely on private health insurance companies. Disruption to today's insurance market by eliminating the cost-sharing payments could cause financial harm to those companies and make them wary of participating in any future . Beyond taking executive action or ending the federal government's appeal of the court's ruling in favor of House Republicans, Trump has other options at his disposal, said Bagley, who that the Obama administration is breaking the law by making the payments to insurers. Beyond whatever Trump may want to achieve on health care, however, there's another very big reason why he may not want to go along with the House Republican effort to end the costsharing payments, Bagley said: protecting the authority of the executive branch.
Trump also could still contest the lawsuit, even if he agrees the payments aren't legal, by
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continuing Obama's argument that Congress doesn't have legal standing to sue over them.
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